Archive: Dance Writing, Reviews, and Podcasts

Join ARENA DANCES for our weekly Studio Stories podcast, where each week we reminisce on Twin Cities dance history with a new special guest. This week, we hear from Dana Kassel.

Dana is currently Program Director for the McKnight Fellowship Programs for Dancers and Choreographers. She brings a wealth of experience to the position with her long history as a performer and a highly skilled and respected administrator.

Tune in this Thursday, January 6 at 12:00pm to hear Dana’s studio story.

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Read a series of articles published in conjunction with Choreographers’ Evening 2021, curated by Valerie Oliveiro and edited by Emily Gastineau:
– Re: Writing for the Walker/Mn Artists by Julie Tolentino
– For All Your Life by Leslie Cuyjet
– When the Beings in the Room Come Alive by Kayva Yang with Arneshia Williams, Megan Mayer, Tumelo Khupe, and Emily Michaels King
– I Observe You Observing Me: Dance and Performative Utopias by Sam Aros Mitchell

Join ARENA DANCES for our weekly Studio Stories podcast, where each week we reminisce on Twin Cities dance history with a new special guest. This week, we hear from Marciano Silva dos Santos.

Marciano is a native of Brazil who quickly entered the Minnesota dance landscape as a stand out artist with TU Dance, where he performed for five years. Soon after he formed his company, Contempo Physical Dance, making his own signature mark within the community.

Tune in this Thursday, November 18 at 12:00pm to hear Marciano’s studio story.

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Join ARENA DANCES for our weekly Studio Stories podcast, where each week we reminisce on Twin Cities dance history with a new special guest. This week, we hear from Denise Armstead.

Denise Armstead was a founding member with Zenon Dance Company, with some really fun behind-the-scenes information and insights to its formation. Denise performed with the company over 20 years and now creates her own work with DA Dance.

Tune in this Thursday, November 11 at 12:00pm to hear Denise’s studio story.

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Each One, Teach One: Footwork in Minnesota by Wills Glasspiegel
An oral history of footwork in Minnesota, from the dancers and DJs that helped bring this culture to life in the Twin Cities

Circular Healing by Juleana Enright
A conversation with Rosy Simas (Seneca) and Sam Mitchell on non-transactional art practices, creating spaces of rest and respite, and the overlapping of past, present, and future

The Smell of Paradox and the Disequilibrium of Loss by Kaya Lovestrand
How the evocative sense of smell and the attentiveness of art can illuminate complex, unknowable, and indescribable facets of experience

Join ARENA DANCES for our weekly Studio Stories podcast, where each week we reminisce on Twin Cities dance history with a new special guest. This week, we hear from Wynn Fricke.

Wynn was a company member with Zenon Dance Company just shy of 10 years from 1992-2001. Wynn has had several commissions of her choreography at Zenon, Minnesota Dance Theater, Ragamala and many more, and is the artistic director of her own company Borrowed Bones Dance Theater. She is currently the head of the dance minor at Macalester College.

Tune in this Thursday, November 4 at 12:00pm to hear more about Wynn’s insight on dance, history and the artistic process!

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Join ARENA DANCES for our weekly Studio Stories podcast, where each week we reminisce on Twin Cities dance history with a new special guest. This week, we sat down with Jim Lieberthal to learn about his journey.

Jim Lieberthal has worked creatively in Minneapolis since 1982: as a dancer, choreographer, actor, writer, producer, and now filmmaker. He has performed 17 years of Nutcrackers, a TV series for children on PBS (“The Folk Book”), and utilizes techniques of Noh and Kabuki Theater from Japan in his work.

Tune in this Thursday, October 28, at 12:00pm to hear more about Jim’s insight on dance, life and the artistic process!

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Join ARENA DANCES for our weekly Studio Stories podcast, where each week we reminisce on Twin Cities dance history with a new special guest. This week, we sat down with Stephanie Fellner Grey to learn about her journey.

Stephanie Fellner’s Minneapolis career now spans three decades. A member of The Ballet of the Dolls for 25 years, Stephanie originated numerous roles, including Rat Queen in Nutcracker…Not so Suite and the title role in Cinderella.

Tune in this Thursday, October 21, at 12:00pm to hear more about Stephanie’s insight on dance, life and the artistic process!

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Join ARENA DANCES for our weekly Studio Stories Podcast, where each week we reminisce on Twin Cities dance history with a new special guest. This week, we sat down with Michael Engel to learn about his journey.

A long-standing pillar of the Twin Cities dance community, Engel has been a dancer, choreographer, teacher and artist for over three decades. He’s been a featured performer with the likes of Linda Shapiro and Leigh Dillard, Maria Cheng and Dancers, Patrick Scully’s Contact Works, The Guthrie Theater and countless others.

The intersection of Engel’s life as both artist and parent brings a unique perspective to his creative process: “For me, dancers who have managed to have full dance careers and a family have some very special interrelationships with their craft and with their children; experiences that go well beyond imagining how it is not easy to dance and be a parent.”

Visit http://www.arena-dances.org to listen, or check it out wherever you get your podcasts!